Cainiao and YiLiu, both based in Shenzhen, will use IOT, artificial intelligence and Big Data to serve millions of Chinese trucks, help cargo owners and truck owners optimize smart routes, cargo loading and driving safety dispatch, and move toward digitizing the former's entire supply chain. Further details of the investment are unknown.

Over 13 million trucks operate in China. The large number of vehicles, the small scale of companies, loose organization and other structural issues have long accumulated in the freight industry and are intensifying. General transport capacity is rather excessive, while the burden on operators is quite heavy, and truck drivers run year round in poor working and living conditions, said Zhou Wei, chief engineer of China's transport ministry.

Founded by Alibaba and others in 2013, Cainiao proposed the full activation of the logistics IOT strategy, use of technology to connect the real and virtual worlds of logistics, and realize digitization and intelligence in all elements of logistics, such as personnel, vehicles, goods, warehouses and stores, at the Global Smart Logistics Summit in Hangzhou on May 31.

Formed in 2009, YiLiu Technology is a logistics-oriented IOT company that focuses on the digitization and smartification of vehicles and goods.